Technical Field
This invention refers to an assembly for the loading and unloading of semi-trailers on railway wagons comprising a loading and unloading structure for semi-trailers consisting of a standard container interface at the top in order to be able to use container handling means which exist, for instance, in combined transport terminals.
Description of the Related Art
There is a well-known means of container transport for their transportation on the beds of semi-trailers or the beds of freight wagons. Since the characteristics of the transport containers are standardized, in particular their sizes, there are means of handling containers allowing containers to be handled and moved, in particular for being picked up from the top from a semi-trailer bed and their placing on the bed of a freight wagon or vice versa.
Because the structural strength of the semi-trailers is low, there was no way of directly handling all the semi-trailers in the same way as the container. This would be an advantage in facilitating rail-road transport, that is the railway transport of semi-trailers on railway wagons, generally requiring specific wagons and related structures which are costly and dedicated solely to this purpose. The possibility of directly handling and an entire semi-trailer by existing container handling means would dispense with many structures and modifications which are required for road-rail transport, resulting in an obvious saving in cost and space in terms of railway installations and loading and unloading times.